NewEnergyNews: WHY NEW ENERGY NEEDS ENERGY EFFICIENCY/

NewEnergyNews

Gleanings from the web and the world, condensed for convenience, illustrated for enlightenment, arranged for impact...

The challenge now: To make every day Earth Day.

YESTERDAY

THINGS-TO-THINK-ABOUT WEDNESDAY, August 23:

  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And The New Energy Boom
  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And the EV Revolution
  • THE DAY BEFORE

  • Weekend Video: Coming Ocean Current Collapse Could Up Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Impacts Of The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current Collapse
  • Weekend Video: More Facts On The AMOC
  • THE DAY BEFORE THE DAY BEFORE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 15-16:

  • Weekend Video: The Truth About China And The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Florida Insurance At The Climate Crisis Storm’s Eye
  • Weekend Video: The 9-1-1 On Rooftop Solar
  • THE DAY BEFORE THAT

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 8-9:

  • Weekend Video: Bill Nye Science Guy On The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: The Changes Causing The Crisis
  • Weekend Video: A “Massive Global Solar Boom” Now
  • THE LAST DAY UP HERE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 1-2:

  • The Global New Energy Boom Accelerates
  • Ukraine Faces The Climate Crisis While Fighting To Survive
  • Texas Heat And Politics Of Denial
  • --------------------------

    --------------------------

    Founding Editor Herman K. Trabish

    --------------------------

    --------------------------

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, June 17-18

  • Fixing The Power System
  • The Energy Storage Solution
  • New Energy Equity With Community Solar
  • Weekend Video: The Way Wind Can Help Win Wars
  • Weekend Video: New Support For Hydropower
  • Some details about NewEnergyNews and the man behind the curtain: Herman K. Trabish, Agua Dulce, CA., Doctor with my hands, Writer with my head, Student of New Energy and Human Experience with my heart

    email: herman@NewEnergyNews.net

    -------------------

    -------------------

      A tip of the NewEnergyNews cap to Phillip Garcia for crucial assistance in the design implementation of this site. Thanks, Phillip.

    -------------------

    Pay a visit to the HARRY BOYKOFF page at Basketball Reference, sponsored by NewEnergyNews and Oil In Their Blood.

  • ---------------
  • WEEKEND VIDEOS, August 24-26:
  • Happy One-Year Birthday, Inflation Reduction Act
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 1
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 2

    Friday, December 11, 2009

    WHY NEW ENERGY NEEDS ENERGY EFFICIENCY

    Searching for a Miracle; ‘Net Energy’ Limits & the Fate of Industrial Society
    November 12, 2009 (Post Carbon Institute)

    "Searching for a Miracle; ‘Net Energy’ Limits & the Fate of Industrial Society, by Richard Heinberg, [asks]…Can any combination of known energy sources successfully supply society’s energy needs at least up to the year 2100? [and concludes]…that all known energy sources are subject to strict limits of one kind or another. Conventional energy sources such as oil, gas, coal, and nuclear are either at or nearing the limits of their ability to grow in annual supply, and will dwindle…And contrary to the hopes of many, there is no clear practical scenario by which…alternative sources [will] sustain industrial society at its present scale of operations…

    "…[Heinberg expands on] the “net energy” factor—the requirement that energy systems yield more energy than is invested in their construction and operation…[and insists that] proposed energy transition scenarios…are overly optimistic, as they do not address all of the relevant limiting factors to the expansion of alternative energy sources…[He] shows why energy conservation (using less energy, and also less resource materials) combined with humane, gradual population decline must become primary strategies for achieving sustainability…"


    click to enlarge

    "The world’s current energy regime is unsustainable…[That is agreed on by] a wide and growing public consensus…concerned about the climate and the other environmental impacts of society’s reliance on fossil fuels…[and] troubled by questions regarding the security of future supplies of these fuels…

    "Nonetheless, it remains a commonly held assumption [according to Heinberg] that alternative energy sources… are readily available…and ready to come on-line in a bigger way. All that is necessary, according to this view, is to invest sufficiently…While it is possible to point to innumerable successful alternative energy production installations…it is not possible to point to more than a very few examples of an entire modern industrial nation obtaining the bulk of its energy from sources other than oil, coal, and natural gas…Thus it is vitally important that energy alternatives be evaluated thoroughly… for a systemic societal transition away from oil, coal, and natural gas…"


    click to enlarge

    "It is a central purpose of [Heinberg’s work] to systematically review key limiting factors…[with emphasis] on one key criterion: net energy, or energy returned on energy invested (EROEI).This measure focuses on the key question: All things considered, how much more energy does a system produce than is required to develop and operate that system? What is the ratio of energy in versus energy out? Some energy “sources” can be shown to produce little or no net energy. Others are only minimally positive.

    "…[Heinberg’s] fundamental disturbing conclusion…is that there is little likelihood that either conventional fossil fuels or alternative energy sources can reliably be counted on to provide the amount and quality of energy that will be needed to sustain economic growth—or even current levels of economic activity—during the remainder of the current century…[and therefore] a sensible transition energy plan will have to emphasize energy conservation above all…"

    0 Comments:

    Post a Comment

    << Home